The present invention relates generally to fish canning machinery. More particularly, the invention provides a fish canning method and apparatus with considerably increased canning speed capacity while simultaneously minimizing the operational speed of the machine components and reducing the amount of lost product.
The prior art includes various fish canning machines for tuna and other fish. It is known in the prior art to split the incoming tuna into two separate processing lanes, in part to increase the canning speed capacity of the equipment. Such prior art machines are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,887,414 and 4,116,600.
A significant aspect of the present invention is that the incoming supply of tuna or other fish being fed into the machine is split, not only into two lanes, but is subsequently split into four lanes. The advantage of splitting the infed tuna or other fish into four lanes is to minimize the operational speed of most of the components of the machine. The present invention, in its preferred configuration, uses two turning wheels using a common drive and having a total of eight lanes and is expected to achieve canning speeds of approximately 600 cans per minute, whereas the fastest fish canning machines known to the applicants are capable of speeds of approximately 300 cans per minute.
The prior art fish canning machines, including the two patents noted above, typically package the fish into the can when the can is in a vertical position, i.e., the bottom of the can is oriented vertically. An inherent disadvantage of the prior art vertical alignment is the tendency of chunks of fish to fall out of the vertically oriented can before the top of the can has been applied and sealed. Not only does this result in lost product, but the lost product must be cleaned off the machine and/or the cannery floor.
Another significant aspect of the present invention is that the can filling step is performed while the can is horizontal, i.e., the base of the can is oriented horizontally. This alignment during the can filling step avoids the inherent weakness of the typical prior art canning machines.
The increased capacity provided by the present invention is achieved while simultaneously reducing the incidence of lost product, and is also achieved simultaneously with minimizing the operational speeds of the major components of the machinery.
Accordingly, a primary object of the invention is to provide a solid, chunk and flake fish canning method and apparatus capable of achieving canning speeds of approximately 600 cans per minute.
A further object of the invention is to provide a fish canning apparatus wherein the incoming stream of tuna or other fish is split into four separate processing lanes, in part to minimize the operational speeds of most of the machine components.
Another object of the invention is to provide a fish canning apparatus wherein the packing step occurs when the can is oriented with its bottom in a horizontal plane, thereby minimizing lost product that otherwise tends to occur when the packing step takes place with a vertically oriented can.
A further object of the invention is to provide a high speed fish canning apparatus capable of achieving higher speeds than prior art devices, while simultaneously reducing lost product and simultaneously minimizing the speed of the primary components of the canning apparatus.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the drawings wherein: